Chapter Thirteen #2
I laughed. “No, I’m not thinking about Archer. I’m thinking about Mack.”
“Mack?” The group cried out in unison.
“Not like that ,” I said. “Mack and I sat down today and talked about my legal options regarding Annette and my pottery.”
“What did he say?” Dani asked.
“He said I could file a civil lawsuit, or I could file a police report, and attempt to mount a criminal case. Or I could do both, but the criminal case would likely delay a civil lawsuit. Then he talked about this and he brought up that and by the end, my head was swimming in legalese and dollar signs.”
“I’m so sorry you have to deal with this, sweetie,” Maisie said. “This Annette woman sounds like a monster.”
“Thank you. I really just don’t know what to do.”
“I know what we’re gonna do,” Dani said, placing a glass in front of me before pouring a shot of tequila. “You’re gonna drink this, then we’re gonna get in the car and Charley’s gonna drive us to Annette’s place.”
“Then what?” I asked.
“Then you’re gonna fuck her shit up, bigtime.”
I took the shot.
As we neared Sir Ramic’s Kingdom, I seriously thought I was going to puke. My shot of courage had all but worn off, and it was all I could do to keep from spiraling into a full-blown panic attack.
Who was I kidding? I wasn’t like these women. I wasn’t tough, I wasn’t intimidating. And I had no idea why Dani thought I could be.
She’d convinced me to call Annette and ask her to meet me at her studio. Since it was a couple of hours past closing, I used a sudden burst of inspiration as an excuse to get her to open the doors for me.
Dani and Maisie literally had to write out a script for me to follow, that’s how bad I was at deception.
My god, what had these women gotten me into?
Per the plan, Charley parked around the corner, out of sight. I was to meet Annette at the front door alone, and the women would follow the second they saw me walk inside.
Just as I was getting ready to tell Dani to call all of this off and take us back to ‘Margaritaville,’ the strangest thing happened.
Charley released her seatbelt and turned to face me, reaching over to grab my hand. “I’ve always been kind of shy and sometimes I haven’t spoken up for myself when I should have. But you make me brave. Thank you for making me brave.”
I nearly burst into tears at her words.
“You ready?” Dani said.
“Hell, yeah,” I replied.
“Go, baby, go,” Don Mom said, and I climbed out of the car.
As expected, Annette was waiting for me at the entrance. “Goodness, what is all of this about? I don’t believe you’ve ever asked me to open up after hours before but you sounded so fired up on the phone. What’s brought on this sudden inspiration?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Love, hate, betrayal, all the classics.”
“Oh, well, then let’s get you inside,” she said, and unlocked the door. “I’ll make us some tea.”
“You better put on a full pot,” Dani said, as she and the other women pushed their way through the door.
“Oh, my, you brought… friends?” Annette stammered ou t.
“She did,” Dani said, taking the keys from Annette and locking the door from the inside.
“What…what’s going on? What is this?”
I froze, but Dani gave my hand a squeeze and smiled.
“You got this, honey,” she whispered.
I cleared my throat. “I’m here to talk about Edgar Wickens.”
“I don’t believe I know anybody by that name,” Annette lied.
“That’s true, because he doesn’t really exist,” I said. “But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”
“Echo, there must be some sort of mistake. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really?” Maisie pulled out a two-inch thick file folder and slapped it on the table. “I believe these documents will prove otherwise.”
“A forensic trail of Wickens’s financials all funneling to your accounts,” I said. “In that folder, you’ll also find a preliminary motion to file both criminal and civil charges against you.” I nodded to the file. “Go ahead, look through it.”
“I don’t think I need to do such a thing,” Annette bit out. “In fact, I’m going to call the police right now.”
“Go ahead, better yet, you can call my brother. He’s a detective. I can file a report directly with him and we can get the criminal proceedings started right now if you like.”
Annette swallowed .
Hard.
“Or…” she squeaked. “Um…”
“Or, you give every penny you stole from me back so I can give it to charity like I always wanted to do.”
“And if I don’t have every one of those pennies?”
“Then you can transfer whatever is left in your accounts as well as sign over the deed to your little queendom here,” Dani said.
“Queefdom?” Tillie suggested.
“And if I refuse?” Annette retorted.
“Are you really going to make me do the whole schtick where I say, ‘You have a lot of valuable and breakable things in here, it’d be a real shame if something happened to them.’?” Dani taunted.
Tillie clapped her hands. “That. I vote for that.”
“That’s the only reason I came,” Maisie said.
I turned to Dani and gave her a nod and Dani set her purse on the table next to the file, and smiled. She ran her hand gently over one of the shelves, walking the length of it, and knocking everything to the floor.
I stood watching as the rest of the women followed suit, breaking almost everything in the store.
“Okay, okay!” Annette screamed. “Stop!”
With my internal justice meter pegged into the red, and bolstered by my posse of badass bitches, I grabbed Annette by her lapels and said, “I mean it, bitch, don’t fuck with me, or you’ll end up broken on the floor with the rest of your useless trinkets.
You’re gonna make me whole, then you’re gonna get the fuck outta town and never come back.
Or a lawsuit will be the last of your worries. ”
It was then I noticed Annette had wet herself. I would like to say I felt bad, but I was incapable of lying.
We then spent the next two hours signing paperwork, and assisting her with cleaning up. Tillie was a notary, so we were able to take care of transferring the deed right then and there. She also transferred all of the money in her accounts to me, which was a nice chunk of change.
Annette murmured that she had a sister in Montana, and we suggested she go visit there for a permanent stay.
With my newfound ride or dies beside me, we headed back to finish Taco Tuesday on a Friday.